Three years after setting out, disabled sailor Ian Wyllie has completed his solo circumnavigation of the UK and Ireland following the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s Sevenstar race waypoints.

The 46-year-old’s achievement marks five years since complications of spinal injuries consigned him to seven years of nursing care.

Wyllie sails a 1979 Vancouver 27, Trilleen, which he took on as a project boat and has been restoring in parallel with his own rehabilitation.

The sailing challenge has so far raised more than £10,853 for the Andrew Cassell Foundation (including offline donations) – a charity that helped to get him back on the water.

During his stop-start voyage, Wyllie has also been advocating for improved access to the water for disabled people – and the increasing number of sailors living with age-acquired infirmities.

Ian Wyllie bought his Vancouver 27 as a project boat in 2021, she had been “mouldering in the corner of a yard in Cowes” – pictured here alongside at Kirkibost

Trilleen at anchor in Arcairseid Mhor, Eriskay

Wyllie told PBO: “The circumnavigation has been more stop than start due to technical issues.

“First, my mast was destroyed when a travel lift contacted the forestay creating an irreversible bend in the mainmast, and then last year off the Western Isles, my engine decided to drink seawater rather than oil, resulting in a winter’s rebuild in Stornoway.

“The final insult was that rebuilt engine cracking part of its block during routine maintenance in Lowestoft resulting in a need for a swift replacement.”

Despite these challenges, which he says ’have had the benefit of allowing him to test the robustness of his recovery’, Wyllie has relished the chance to develop his solo skills in the near offshore.

He recalled “the particular pleasure of running and reaching for three days up the west coast of Ireland in quiescent seas”, before making landfall into Islay.

He said: “The passage north to Shetland out of Westray, into the shining night of midsummer, before a smashing beat across the outside of Muckle Flugga is a sail I’ll remember with pleasure for a long time.”

What is Ian Wyllie’s disability?

Ian’s early career as junior naval officer ended when training accident left him with a spinal injury. Credit: Ian Wyllie

Wyllie’s early career as junior naval officer ended when a training accident left him with a spinal injury.

After an initially reasonable recovery, he gained an engineering degree and a doctorate in human response to vibration.

Unfortunately, a serious complications of the original spinal injury then caused his physical and mental health to decline precipitously resulting in his spending a prolonged period in nursing care.

Good nursing saw him recover, slowly and incompletely, and he began to wonder if he could try sailing again.

He said: “I was delighted to find the Andrew Cassell Foundation because of their insistence on technical excellence, and their willingness to invest in me despite me joining them as a power chair user who could barely walk the length of a Sonar even with splints and crutches.

“They were tolerant to a fault of my excess enthusiasm, even when I fell flat face-first into the well of the boat.”

After seven years of nursing care, Ian got back afloat thanks to the Andy Cassell Foundation. Credit Ian Wyllie

Challenging circumnavigation

Reflecting on his round-Britain and Ireland voyage, Wyllie said: ‘This trip has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

“Despite technical failures, two winters away, a grievous bereavement, I’ve completed that which I set out to do, and Trilleen is in better shape than she has ever been.

“She’s becoming a right little beast at near offshore work, and I’m looking forward to further adventures.”

He added: “I didn’t set out to break records, although if I’ve helped advanced the cause of disabled sailing I’m very happy.

“Along the way I have been communicating with teams at harbours and marinas about how improving access to the water for disabled sailors can be a commercial benefit to their operations by also benefiting their older cruising customers who are increasingly keeping sailing with age-acquired infirmities resulting from arthritises, joint replacements and similar issues.”

Throughout the circumnavigation, Wyllie kept detailed, and often lyrical, voyage logs on his website sailingtrilleen.org and has also touched on how he manages his disabilities at sea.

Ian’s voyage has given him a taste of the stunning northern waters, such as Kirkibost, North Uist and he is now moving Trilleen to be within easy reach of Orkney, Shetland and the Hebrides. Credit: Ian Wyllie

Trilleen moored up at Kirkabost, North Uist

Lockdown refit

Wyllie bought his Vancouver 27 in 2021, then lying leaking and some what mouldering in the corner of a yard in Cowes, and began to restore her as part of his rehabilitation.

He said: “I don’t recommend it as a strategy – I was completely prepared to sell her at a loss if I failed – but at the time there weren’t many good rehab options open due to the pandemic, and it fell to me to create my own.”

Ian was fully prepared to scrap Trilleen for a loss if his project boat restoration didn’t work out. Credit: Ian Wyllie

He renamed her Trilleen, Manx Gaelic for the constellation of the Pleiades in honour of a boat his ancestors had built in Peel for subsistence fishing.

With Trilleen lying at Cowes he was able to continue to sail with the Andrew Cassell Foundation (ACF) – the charity founded by Andy Cassell, who was born without legs but went on to win gold at the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta.

After developing his skills further, Wyllie began to pass on what he had learned to other Foundation participants.

He said: “It was a particular privilege to get to know the late Andy Cassell.

“I carried his wise counsel with me around the waters of our islands, and his life remains an inspiration I treasure.”

Trilleen’s initial refit replaced her electrics, water, sanitation, repaired her windows, relined the much of the hull and replaced considerable amounts of her standing and running rigging.

In a June 2022 blog, Wyllie said: “Refitting older and traditional boats is a perpetual terror.
“You never know which dawn will reveal critical structural flaws, rot, corroded metal, or simply sheets of veneer falling of the joinery.
“I’ve been broadly lucky this time with most things going to plan, if not to time.”

Motoring from Ballycastle to Cullmore (Foyle) to gain westing to hopefully make way north

Ian has kept detailed, and often lyrical, voyage logs on his website sailingtrilleen.org. Credit: Ian Wyllie

He told PBO: “Refits of this sort are expensive, prolonged and not to everyone’s taste. But with a boat of such provenance and a hull in excellent condition it seemed almost a crime for her to be neglected, and perhaps in time scrapped.”

Trilleen returned to Cowes, Isle of Wight on 27 July.

Wyllie praised the team at East Cowes Marina (Boatfolk) for their help in finding space for him in their “incredibly busy marina in the run up to, and through Cowes Week” where he will be crewing with and helping out the ACF who this year for the first time are growing their entry to Cowes Week from three to four Sonars.

Stunning scenes from his voyage. Credit: Ian Wyllie

Muckle Flugga Lighthouse is the most northerly lighthouse in the UK

Sea colony Mingulay, Barra. Credit: Ian Wyllie

Wyllie may have completed his challenge but he will soon be setting sail again.

He added: “After Cowes Week, Trilleen will be rebasing to Lossiemouth on the Moray Firth.

“I find myself drawn more and more to the northern waters, and it makes sense to be based within easy reach of Orkney, Shetland and the Hebrides.

“What comes next beyond that passage to her new home is for now unknown.”

Find Sailing Trilleen’s crowdfunder for the Andrew Cassell Foundation at: www.crowdfunder.co.uk.

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